Taken the opportunity of a long weekend up near Whitby and a rare away game. Still a 2 hour drive dven from there though!
Here are my gratuitous ratings.
Schmeichel: 6 - Didn’t have much to do save-wise; a few dodgy bits of distribution though.
Amartey: 6 - Some crustrating wayward passes demonstrated how he still needs to work on that side of his game. Good defensively still, particularly in the second half.
Morgan: 6 - Lost some games of “shall I stay or shall I go" earlier on, causing space to open up behind him. Made some poor defensive shapes with Maguire.
Maguire: 9 - Some excellent last-ditch tackles, although he was sometimes partly responsible for the fact they had to be made. Always at outlet at the back and dominated the Newcastle attack. With a bonus point for his goal, he’s my choice for out MOTM.
Chilwell: 7 - Watched as an atticking force, and his delivery wasn’t great today. But still both a willing runner and defensively solid.
Ricardo: 7 - Sometimes things didn’t quite come off for him but still provided a useful attacking outlet. His dribbling asked questions of the Newcastle defence.
Ndidi: 9 - Looked improved from late, continuing to win tackles but looking more assured on the ball to go with it. Snuffed a lot out to blunt and tutn over attacks.
Mendy: 7 - Went about his business with little fuss; I didn’t notice him a great deal but what I did see crom him was good.
Maddison 8 - Popped up a lot in central areas and dealt with tight situations with greater maturity than I’ve seen from him before. An encouraging performance that suggests he’s learning and improving.
Iheanacho: 7 - Useful in build-up play but didn’t get any real chances fall to him. More measured than the usual, erratic player I’m used to seeing.
Vardy: 7 - Gave the ball away with some loose touches today and wasn’t so effective against a deep defence. Took a fine penalty though.
Albrighton: 7 - A useful cameo against a team who had largely given up by that point.
Iborra: n/a - But looked good.
Mr. Puel can be very happy with this performance. True, Newcastle didn’t offer much, but we were good, cohesive, and playing in the style he wants. We just need to be watchful of getting caught on the counter.
Player ratings vs. Newcastle (away)
posted on 30/9/18
I agree that we can’t really go on too much about who we play as we still have to perform and score to get 3 points. Although to be fair, I’m not sure many people are.
Mendy had a decent game and I think it’s difficult because he is never probably going to stand out too much in the role he plays. For Ndidi and Mendy to be a regular pairing for every game, we are going to have to be brilliantly creative from other areas or one of them is going to have to look up and play more forward passes. However, I think the duo is great pair to have against the top teams and hopefully Iborra will kick on in training/cup games, etc and we will see him as another option, if needed, against poor teams where he can control the midfield and ping a ball. To be fair, he wasn’t needed today so it isn’t an immediate issue.
Superb corner from Maddison and even in games where he isn’t on fire, he is often a creative outlet which is vital in our current team.
Off day for Chilwell in relation to balls into the box but categorically should not be dropped! He has come on so much defensively which, of course, is his main job in this formation.
Nev, what did you mean about Albrighton’s percentages?
Is anyone talking about Simpson starting!? He’s not in our squad - he can’t start!?!?
Well done Puel, he could have reverted to Ricardo right back, but fair play to him - he is recognising what didn’t work within his formation/tactics and with a more traditional right back (at least from a positioning perspective) and RW who attacks/dribbles at pace, we look much better on that side.
I can see Maddison still coming back into the centre as I can’t, at the minute, see Iheanacho being consistent enough to play with Vardy and still see him as being competition for Vardy. That then will mean that there is that other slot open for Albrighton/Ghezzal on the left to battle for.
Without both Gray and Ghezzzal playing together and bunching in and behind Vardy, we have more space for Maddison and a little more for Vardy and more space that is being utilised down the flanks. I have optimism/ confidence that Puel probably won’t look back now to that sort of narrow, bunched up 3 behind Vardy and Ghezzal and Gray will be battling it out for one spot, although if Ghezzal kicks on, I think Gray may really struggle for pitch time upon his return
posted on 30/9/18
I do like your posts KTF1, but have you ever been accused of verbosity?
posted on 30/9/18
Amongst other things...
posted on 30/9/18
As Dungeon has left his station and is probably in a Newcastle gutter after 1 too many Newky Browns last night, can anyone else tell me how our front 4 looked?
posted on 30/9/18
Blunt !
posted on 30/9/18
Pretty,
Photogenic,
Artistic,
posted on 30/9/18
Mersey - to answer your question:
Firstly, it’s not really a front 3. I know MOTD had the formation down as a 4-3-1-2, but really it’s a 4-4-2 where Maddison is allowed to roam. He’s doing it very well and helped to retain possession in tight spots. He helped out his teammates no end by making himself available in tight spots and smartly keeping possession.
As for how he combined with Iheanacho and Vardy, the simple answer is not as well as against Huddersfield. Maddison was playing deeper and Vardy didn’t have the best of games in holding the ball up, conceding possession a lot. Newcastle were also fairly well drilled defensively in open play. Their problems were defending set pieces and a total lack of confidence on the ball. A friend of mine commented that he’d never seen a Prem team hoof it so much.
We still look better for having the 3 there and ready to interact, although accepted the opposition recently has proven weak. Whether the 4-4-2 will remain the correct option when we get to tougher fixtures in December is another matter, but frankly if that’s the main concern then there’s not a lot to complain about with it right now.
posted on 30/9/18
Thanks Dunge - appreciate your viewpoint.
So it looked more like 4-4-2 this week? I still felt it was a 4-2-3-1 against Hudd which I think you didn’t see.
So are we trying to play 4-2-3-1 which is actually becoming 4-2-2-1-1?
posted on 30/9/18
I think they amount to a similar thing, but for me Iheanacho isn’t dropping back enough to call it a 4-2-3-1. It looks like a front 2 to me.
posted on 1/10/18
Got it Dunge, so it’s 4-2-2-2.
Interesting formation and I guess it’s novel and new.
For me, how defensively sound we are against Better opposition will be telling. Puel seems happy with our discipline and work off the ball on Saturday but Newcastle still has two clear goal scoring opportunities despite being the worst attacking side in the world currently.
I think Everton will be the perfect barometer for us to judge. Win that and I think Nev has every right to remain smug. Lose, and the questions remain.
The fact that Puel is getting results currently is enough for me. For the avoidance of doubt, he should be given at least the full season to prove his methods if we’re nowhere near relegation. Then we can assess progress with plenty of evidence.